鈥淏ad Boys: Ride or Die,鈥� the fourth installment in the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence action-comedy series, is about a fight to redeem a tarnished legacy.
No, not that one. The reputation of Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano), the beloved captain of detectives Mike (Smith) and Marcus (Lawrence), has been posthumously besmirched. After his death, Conrad is framed as an informant for a Mexican drug cartel as a way to cloak more sinister corruption. Our detectives set out to clear his name.
Of course, that鈥檚 going on here is for Smith. 鈥淩ide or Die鈥� was in development in 2022 when . The film was temporarily put on hold. Options were weighed. But 2020鈥檚 鈥淏ad Boys for Life鈥� made a hefty $424.6 million before COVID-19 shut down theaters. Watcha gonna do?
The result is the first movie Smith has made in that era defined as Post Slap. Here he is, back in the driver鈥檚 seat and flying around the Miami waterfront with Lawrence riding shotgun. That鈥檚 to say: Smith is very much back in his element.
鈥淩ide or Die,鈥� which opens in theaters Thursday, is an attempt to pretend there haven鈥檛 been any bumps in the road along the way. More than that, this 鈥淏ad Boys,鈥� coming 29 years after the original, would like very much to act as if nothing much has changed in not just the last two years but in the previous three decades.
Some signs of age is creeping in 鈥淩ide or Die." Marcus has a heart attack on the dance floor and Mike is suffering from panic attacks. But with the exception of a drone or two, this is a movie that feels like it exists in the 1990s. Jerry Bruckheimer is still a producer, while original director Michael Bay has, as he did in the previous one, steps aside for Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. (Bay returns for a cameo.) But 鈥淩ide or Die,鈥� set against Miami nightclubs and alligator-crawling hideouts, has largely stuck to its old buddy-cop formula with all the requisite explosions and slow-mo鈥檈d car chases mixed in.
As before, the key is the comic chemistry and endearing bond between Smith and Lawrence. And, really, as much as the response to 鈥淩ide or Die鈥� is sure to be taken as a referendum on Smith鈥檚 recalibrated drawing power, Lawrence is the MVP of these movies. It鈥檚 his manic comic energy that propels them. The schtick may be a little stale at this point, but no one can deliver a line like 鈥淐hitty Chitty Bang Bang!鈥� in a gunfight with quite the same panache. 鈥淩ide or Die,鈥� scripted by Chris Bremner and Will Beall, knows to prioritize crafting ripe situations for Lawrence. After his heart attack, Marcus wakes up with a new zest for life and a foolhardy feeling of invincibility.
The same might have once been said of Smith's bulletproof screen presence, of course. Here, Smith seems a little less cocksure than he once did; those panic attacks keep coming for Mike. Smith is also playing more of a straight-man to Lawrence. If the slap caused a reassessment of Smith as a movie star, 鈥淩ide or Die鈥� is the kind of the tailor-made vehicle that reminds you there haven鈥檛 been many better male American action stars in the last few decades.
None of this is enough to lift 鈥淩ide or Die鈥� beyond its paint-by-numbers plotting, or prevent the film from being inevitably tethered to the Slap 鈥� not least because the film climaxes with Marcus smacking Mike with an open hand. But the directing duo of Adil & Bilall keep the pace moving quick enough to prevent you from dwelling too much on ridiculous details 鈥� like that Mike, as revealed in the last film, is the father to an imprisoned cartel assassin named Armando (Jacob Scipio), a prominent character this time around. And silliness is more of a feature than a bug in movies like 鈥淏ad Boys.鈥�
You end up questioning less why Smith and Lawrence are still making 鈥淏ad Boys鈥� movies than wondering why such breezily watchable genre movie-star platforms more or less don鈥檛 exist any longer. This summer will also bring back 鈥淏everly Hills Cop,鈥� with Eddie Murphy, another reminder that 鈥� outside something like the 鈥淔ast and Furious鈥� films 鈥� the movie industry just hasn鈥檛 produced anything like these guys for years now. Will Smith might not be going anywhere, after all.
鈥淏ad Boys: Ride or Die,鈥� a Columbia Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for 鈥渟trong violence, language throughout and some sexual references.鈥� Running time: 115 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
